Al pastor (from Spanish, "shepherd style"), also known as tacos al pastor, is a dish developed in central Mexico that is based on shawarma spit-grilled meat brought by Lebanese immigrants to Mexico.[1] Being derived from shawarma, it is also similar to the Turkish döner kebab and the Greek gyros. In contrast to döner kebab and shawarma however, tacos al pastor are pork based. In some places of northern Mexico, as in Baja California, this taco is called taco de adobada. A similar dish from Puebla with different spices is tacos árabes.[2]

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A wave of mainly Christian Lebanese immigration to Mexico took place in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In the 1960s, Mexican-born progeny of Lebanese immigrants began opening their own restaurants and combining their heritage with Mexican cuisine.[3]

Grilling a vertical spit of stacked meat slices and cutting it off as it cooks was developed in the 19th century in Ottoman Turkey.[4][5] This is döner kebab, which is the origin of tacos al pastor, Middle Eastern shawarma, and Greek gyros.

A similar dish is called tacos árabes, which originated in Puebla in the 1930s from Arab Mexican cuisine. Tacos árabes use shawarma-style meat carved from a spit, but are served in a pita-style bread called pan árabe. These tacos have been brought by Mexican immigrants to the United States in the past few years and have become popular in cities, such as Chicago and Los Angeles, two of the largest Mexican/Mexican-American population centers in the United States.[7]

A non-pork version featuring chicken marinated in the "al pastor" style was brought "back" to the Middle East in the early 2000s, and sold as "shawarma mexici". It is essentially a chicken shawarma made in the Middle Eastern style (wrapped with garlic mayonnaise, dill pickle, and french fries in a thin flatbread).